Post #2 in my Sneaky Weight Loss series - I show you how to set up your kitchen for painless healthy eating.

Sneaky Tricks for Weight Loss – #2 Redo your Kitchen

If you liked this post, please click the button to share.

Affiliate Disclosure

Post #2 in my Sneaky Weight Loss series - I show you how to set up your kitchen for painless healthy eating.

**This post may contain affiliate links.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I’m going to share some simple tips on how to rearrange your kitchen to support your weight loss efforts.  Obviously one of the main places we have control over is our own kitchen.  It is one of the rare areas in our lives where we have more or less complete control – subject to the whims of our family.  That’s a good thing because you can change things up a bit and experiment with what works for you and what doesn’t.

According to Brian, there are a number of things you can do to trick out your kitchen to skinny-fy your eating.  Remember if you want to BE skinny, you need to DO what the skinny people do!

Easy Tips to Skinny-size Your Kitchen

  1. For starters clear off your counters and table completely.  According to the research, you could lose a pound or more per month simply by keeping ALL food off of your counters, especially cereal boxes.  They just are visual cues that make you want to eat even when you’re not especially hungry.
  2. Play around with your plate sizes.  Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate and a small portion will look like much more.  My kids just bought me a set of red plates for my birthday – red traditionally is a STOP color, so it sends a subconscious sign to eat less.  Use smaller serving bowls and smaller serving spoons.  We are wired to consider a certain amount of scoops – 3 to 5 as a “serving” and our brain doesn’t pay attention to the size of the spoon, so if it’s a huge spoon that automatically equates to a large helping.
  3. Change your glasses as well.  You will pour 15% more liquid into a short, wide tumbler than you will into a tall and elegant highball glass.  Our brain is trained to look at the level on the side of the glass rather than estimate a certain number of ounces.  Silly brain…
  4. Serve everyone a large glass of cold water with their meal.  They can have another beverage if they want it, but they are likely to drink the water just out of habit and most people run a bit dehydrated, so it will help and also fill them up faster during the meal.
  5. Revamp your fridge.  I did this to mine this weekend and so far, it’s working quite well.  Move the veggies OUT of the crisper and put them on the main shelves.  I used a bright blue plastic basket marked “Healthy Stuff” and put them right on the main shelf.  Then I filled up the crisper with the high-calorie breads and things I want to eat LESS of.  Temping things like pies and cookies should be put in opaque packaging like foil or non-transparent Tupperware.  Healthy foods should be front and center and in clear plastic bags or containers.  That’s an easy fix, isn’t it?
  6. Un-Costco your food – no really, I mean it.  I know that every other person on the planet (besides me!  See my Costco story) has a love affair with Costco and their enormous containers of food.  However, what I know from reading these books is that these huge “economy” sizes are making us FAT.  I’ve noticed this myself.  When I HAVE a lot of something, I tend to USE a lot of something.  It doesn’t matter if it is cereal or shampoo or cat food.  But if I don’t have a lot of something, I tend to use it a lot more sparingly.  That is now referred to as the Costco effect.  Your brain is just happier with manageable amounts of things.  So, I’m not saying not to buy the Costco items, I’m just saying do the single-serving thing for yourself.  Pre-package the items into smaller sized containers and leave the 50 gallon drum in your basement food storage or somewhere out of sight.  I promise you – this one tip will shave 20 pounds off you in a year!
  7. Change the way you serve food.  Keep the salad or veggie bowl smack in the middle of the table.  But the meat and the starches need to remain over on the stove or counter.  We are lazy creatures and we are much more likely to take a second helping of salad rather than get up and walk 10 feet to get more potatoes.  (Although my husband proved this one wrong last week – he was quite willing to walk over and take another huge helping of potatoes when I moved it over onto the stove, but according to the research, that is not the norm)

 

Very simple ideas to help your set up your kitchen to lose weight very easily.

So, in short making a few simple changes in your kitchen could result in you and your family both eating better food choices without feeling deprived and as Martha says – that’s a good thing!  Plus, you’ll save money.

Most of these ideas came from a book by a brilliant behavioral scientist called Brian Wansink.  He has written several books, but these are my favorites:

Fabulous Book that is the basis for my skinny tricks blog series.

This book is the oracle of how to change your eating habits.

Here’s a link to an earlier post I did on his previous book Mindless Eating.  Again, it has tons of ideas for how to easily change your eating habits for the better and how to get your family on the healthy eating bandwagon too, without ANY whining and fussing from your kids OR your husband!

This weight loss series has tons of helpful tips. This is how to set up your kitchen for maximum benefit.

Here are the other posts coming up in the series (I’ll add links once they are published.)

#1 – Beat the Buffet

#2 – Skinny Size Your Kitchen – that’s today!

#3 – Snack Proof Your House

#4 – Outsmart the Grocery Store

#5 – Revamp the School Cafeteria

Other posts you may enjoy:

Are Gym Memberships a Good Deal?

5 Fabulous Products to Make Weight Loss EASIER

New Year’s Motivation – My BEST Weight Loss Tips

 


http://instagram.com/adrianscrazylif http://www.pinterest.com/adrianscrazylif/ https://twitter.com/adrianscrazylif/https://plus.google.com/100403852931877348918bloglovinfacebook_adrian

Products and Services for Sale

Two of my top categories are organizing your home and managing your finances.  For me, these are top priorities for a happy and successful life.  So, over the years, I've put together a variety of resources to help you with these issues.

My No BS Financial Freedom Framework

I've done debt-free coaching for hundred of people over the last six years and I get a lot of joy out of helping people find simple and common-sense ways to dig themselves out of debt and learn to manage their money.  Check out my page for more info.

Personal Financial Planner

If pen and paper are more your jam, I have a stunning full color 40-page printable financial planner to track all your financials.  It's a great low-tech solution to keep your money matters all organized in one handy notebook.  Learn more on my financial planner page.

Help to Start a Blog

If you are looking for any help regarding blogging, social media, or all things online, you'll want to check out my other blog - Help for New Bloggers.  I've been a full-time blogger and freelancer for a number of years, so I've gathered all my BEST tips into this helpful blog.

If you liked this post, please click the button to share.

Similar Posts

4 Comments

  1. Gotta say our kitchen is OLD like original 1960’s old (aside from newer appliances) and I hate being in there. A new kitchen or at least revamp is on the schedule for 2016 depending on the budget 😉

    1. I hear ya! I haven’t been entertaining any more (and I LOVE to entertain!) because I’m so embarrassed by our old and ugly kitchen. But I’ve got a kid going to college next year, so I don’t see new countertops or refinished cupboard doors in my future. (sigh)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.